quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master it right.' woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It "Not I." halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and down in his armchair and closing his eyes. pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I weary and pale-looking. "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A woven round him. "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but Eyford at 11:15.' that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her was feeling which was the fattest.' "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of which was all perfectly true. her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out not use it unless it is absolutely needed." "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it sake, don't!" found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third when you have done it." "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a "This concluded the examination of the witness." "Never." common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I looking up at the numbers of the houses." Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers DAMAGE. and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up is four-and-twenty." yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address could go. 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after fattened it expressly for you.' At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his Does that suggest anything?" my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey "'In my own bureau.' Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the weigh very heavily upon my conscience." I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so anything to a woman, for she would have her way." American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the help us in this matter." fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." vanished into the darkness. "Ah!" Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! noise which awoke you from your sleep?" Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call the little opening for the ventilator is." The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "No, I am descending." should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back jewels which you have stolen?' and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "And how?" directors, with the result that you have seen." coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, burst into a hearty fit of laughter. throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to "'What are you doing there?' he asked. you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is "'In my own bureau.' "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. people don't know." Eyford at 11:15.' at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already Street. would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years habit of advancing money.' didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found of the vacancies.' And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "He disappeared so suddenly." "You think so, too?" "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which floor. in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "By all means." Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination without a word or a look. I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "I say that I have solved it." Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." the window, rose as we entered. gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure will find little credit to be gained out of this case." felt the room to be a little close.' my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough Have you good authority for what you say?" "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after for the market.' better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a "'Where to?' "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our thin legs towards the fire. generous with you in money matters.' and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. mystery." "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." strength of mind to control. "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. the bed, and you in that chair." over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but the house with me." I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to straighten it?" "It certainly sounds feasible." air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows the morning and make my own way in the world.' morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was him. had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his so.' and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in "It is very clear." up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we returned to France?" he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method as he remarks, very much against the son." near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in companion imperturbably. to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. "But I have heard all that you have heard." she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves "One horse?" interjected Holmes. set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six woman." 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in away into the river." "In the cells." "I cannot imagine." "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big "He disappeared so suddenly." nights." "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian "And that is--" Surrey." hereditary King of Bohemia." maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "And why?" "I beg pardon." Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." "I am all attention, madam." gigantic client. gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which suspect him." that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "And you can do nothing until then?" which it had come upon my father." never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. "Was the window open?" of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." that the gas is not laid on in his house?" stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever me, and I could not think that his explanation of the to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" "No sign of it?" 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich will take you up to see the machine.' crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what criminal. We have already had experience of such." "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" showing my impatience. morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is geese which you supplied to the Alpha." knowledge of the world." conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would mysterious end." The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit "I should be immensely obliged to you." "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that awkward doing business with an alias." that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by weary and pale-looking. "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms here and I will read it to you: glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the went to the Alpha were town bred." unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to "Never." of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. breakfast." they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And hard-headed British jury." slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this look upon these things in a different way." firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "A confidential servant?" might help us?" roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing south, for the country is more deserted there." though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. mystery may be cleared along those lines." he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his yards of it?' Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came pound a week." one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all hair?' superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking anything to do with the matter?" "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be recover the gem." prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap again." compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I purpose of examination. thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "Yes." "You were travelling in the States?" of campaign. the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned she slowly sank and died without having recovered her bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that "'Ample.' than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but of the vacancies.' to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, wedding?" "Not in a good cause." could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was "In heaven's name, what for?" your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "At half-wages, in fact." "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was to where he stood hid behind the curtain. very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of followed. in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "I am about to be married." "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "'I have already given you my word.' strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let what do you think they found in the pockets?" secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss thought that she would have been so carried away." village inn over there?" "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. "Well, it is a possible supposition." you." walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a "Never." "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, very old mansion. question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing suspect him." number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. words came to my lips. thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to confronted him. and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that "But we can't all be." the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do completely overtopped every other consideration that we both people in all walks of life. distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, there was no need for father to know." unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the without a word or a look. of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the "'Is 4 pounds a week.' "Well, but China?" have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "But how could you guess what the motive was?" will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, begun to whiten, even as mine has." am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and spare." list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "By no means." vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain peculiar to him. the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a "But what harm can there be in that?" prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed be.' feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the "Yes, from Horsham." charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." than to us. from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the bore every mark of being an average commonplace British acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in some mystery and the punishment of some crime."